hunters_forest | Coldfire Reread 2021: Black Sun Rising

Sorry for the delay on this, guys - I was drained and peopled-out last night and wanted to do this chapter justice. Let us return to our regular schedule and watch our Mysterious Stranger #1 making friends. *hides under desk from Damien's wrath*

Plot summary

We start the chapter with a soul being hunted down and killed by something evil. Unaware of that, Damien, Senzei and Ciani choose this very place to stop for the night and Damien ends up offering his assistance to the mother of the killed soul (who turns out to be a teenage boy who's been in a coma for over a day). But something blocks him from seeing what is wrong, and he has to rejoin Senzei and Ciani without accomplishing anything. Dinner then brings the moment we've all waited for - Tarrant finally meets our group of intrepid travelers. While Damien tries to be sneaky about finding out more about the stranger, Ciani takes the direct approach and brings him to their table for some small-talk. Tarrant eventually offers to assist Damien with the unconscious boy, and is permitted to do so despite Damien's suspicions and jealousy. They discover that the boy's soul has been taken, and that all that is left is a mindless body. Tarrant prepares a Working to slowly kill the body, and while Damien initially protests, he lets it happen. They admit to each other that they are hunting the creature that has done this to the boy, but no more than that. Tarrant leaves the daes and heads out into the night, and Damien returns to his companions.

Quotes

For every faeborn consultant that sold legitimate Workings, there would be at least a dozen con artists imitating the trade. And knowing that, to be sure, a dae such as Briand must buy twelve times as much protection.

Damien looked about at the thick timber walls, the heavily plastered ceiling, and shook his head. “Do they really think this will stop a demon?”
“If the guests believe it,” Senzei countered, “doesn’t that give it some power?”
“Enough to matter?”

Sometimes, hungering for a symbol, followers of the One God would carry an earth-disk. Sometimes the need for a material symbol of their faith was simply too great, and their understanding of the Church’s goals too limited . . . and that was the most acceptable option. The Church had learned to tolerate it.

He tried to explain to her. About firearms, and how dangerous they were. About technology in general, and the power of human fear, and how sometimes when there was a physical process that a man couldn’t watch happen - because it was too small, or happened too fast, or was simply out of his sight - his fears could foul it up, and cause it to backfire. So that such a gun might well blow up in its owner’s hand at the moment he most needed it to function. Which meant that no man would carry such a thing, unless he’d had it Worked for safety. Or unless he was a total fool, who thrived on senseless risk. Or unless . . .
Unless he was an adept.

Slowly, calmly, in response to Damien’s fleeting touch, the stranger turned toward him. Across the length of the common room their eyes met. The man’s clear, steady gaze was more informative than any Working could have been - and much more discerning. Damien felt his own space invaded, the chill touch of a strange mind sorting out who and what he was - and then as quickly it was gone, and the space between them was impenetrable once more.

“I don’t kill innocents,” he said coldly.
The death-fae halted in its progress. Gerald Tarrant looked up at him.
“There are no innocents,” he said quietly.

And there are so many little things that are wrong, with him. Like the Earth medallion. His supposed allegiance to a Church that rejects his kind. No adept has made peace with my faith since the Prophet died.

“We’re better off without him,” he told her. Working the fae into his words. Trying to make himself sound convincing.
He wished he truly believed it himself.

Thoughts

The drug-filled dream was lovely, before it turned into a nightmare. Wouldn't blame the poor kid for wanting to escape that dae, based on the description.

I didn't remember the suspended bridges in Briand... the imagery they evoke is pretty, if dark.

We get a glimpse at what Damien can do in terms of Healing. Bless you, Reverend, for following your feelings about the dae's keeper.

At last, they meet! This chapter always makes me giggle like the biggest, silliest fangirl ever. I might even squee.

Damien and Senzei's jealousy towards Gerald is always interesting to read. Also, Damien struggling between jealousy, suspicion and disbelief.

Bonus points for Ciani just getting up and sitting down with the unknown adept. “Knowing. [...] In the old Earth sense.”, indeed. Would this have happened before her memories were stolen, or would she have been more circumspect of the pretty unknown Adept who walked in at night? I'd think the latter, if only that she seems more interested to recover. Then again, she was flirting with Damien the first time they met, so maybe she'd have still done it.

Why is Gerald wearing the Earth medallion, do you think? He seems like the type to be in the non-symbol camp. I personally think it's for the very practical reason of manipulating people.

Gerald has a pistol, guys! And Damien tells us how technology tends to malfunction on Erna, unless one is an adept. (I for one dread living without the internet, so the first settlers must not have been happy at the idea of no/limited tech.)

Behold one of my favourite quotes. Ever. "There are no innocents." Indeed, Gerald, you are lucky that Damien does not share your cynicism.

Link to the previous discussion post (imported from LiveJournal).

How do you guys feel about this chapter? Should we feel sorry or hopeful for our valiant heroes now that they have met the fourth member of their party? Or should we feel sorry for Gerald, for having caused himself to get his biggest headache yet?